1 . Snow had just melted off the ground that April day at our house in Regina Beach. My husband, Carl, had just cleaned up the pool in preparation for selling our _______. The year before, Carl had lost his job, and our economic situation was _______, so we had finally put our home on the _______. The thought of losing our beautiful home was almost more than I could bear.

Deep in despair(绝望), I sat _______ a job application letter for Carl. Out of the corner of my eye I could see our thirteen-month-old son, Forrest, playing near our two beloved dogs, Nana and Sasa. I hadn’t typed more than two sentences when Nana, began _______ violently at the pool and running back and forth.

I _______ to see what was happening. Suddenly, I realized Forrest was nowhere to be seen. Then to my _______, my eyes _______ Forrest’s yellow sleeper in the pool. Sasa was _______ doing her best to keep him afloat by holding on to his sleeper with her mouth. I realized that Forrest had somehow fallen into the ________.

In a split second, I dove in, lifted my precious baby out and carried him inside. But when I realized Forrest wasn’t breathing, I began to go into shock. ________, Carl, who was trained in CPR, arrived and then took over. I stood by with my heart in my ________, and after about three minutes, Forrest began to ________ again.

Things in our lives are much better now. Most importantly, almost losing Forrest —and then ________ — erased any despair I might have had about losing our home.

A house can always be replaced, but knowing we have each other is the greatest ________ of all.

Three Things to Do Before You Are 18

Are you bored with your daily life? Here are some things you should try before you are 18,     1     after that it’s too late.

Learn to swim

Seriously, this is so important     2     it can save your life. If you can’t swim well, you     3    (not) be able to do water sports like waterskiing, surfing and diving. Even taking a boat trip will be     4    (danger) for you. Make sure you do it.

Try at least one kind of team sports

Being a good team player is     5     important skill in life. You can’t just think of yourself,     6     have to work well with other people. Other advantages of team sports like basketball, football and baseball are that they keep you fit and healthy, and they are also great fun. Teams     7     (usual) have a good social life, too. You’ll go to lots of parties and make many friends.

Collect something

One of the best     8     (hobby) for under-18s is collecting things. You could collect kinds of stamps, or you could collect things that make you     9     (remember) what you have done, like cinema tickets for films you have seen or emails from friends. The best way to collect is to have a special album     10     (put) your collection in and to write what each thing means to you. That way you won’t forget.

5 . An old man with his pale blue eyes and a smile walked slowly into the restaurant. His old cloth jacket and warm personality made him easily to be noticed from the usual Saturday morning breakfast people.

A young waitress named Mary watched him walk toward a table by the window. She ran over to him and said, “Here, Sir. Let me give you a hand with that chair.”

In a soft, clear voice he said, “Thank you for your kindness.”

“You’re welcome, sir.” She replied. “And my name is Mary. I’ll be back in a moment and if you need anything, just wave me!”

After he had finished a big meal, Mary helped him up from his chair, and out from behind the table. She helped him walk to the front door.

Holding the door open for him, she said, “Come back and see us, sir!”

He turned with his whole body, smiled and nodded a thank you.

When Mary went to clean his table. she almost let out a cry. Under his plate she found a100-dollar bill with a note, which read. “Dear Mary, you have found the secret of happiness. Your kindness will shine through those who meet you.

The man she had waited on was the owner of the restaurant where she worked. This was the first time that she or any of his workers had ever seen him in person.

8 . My wife and I moved into our home two years ago. We had a yard with a lot of ________. Very often when we have flowers, Denise or I would plant some between the rocks, just to add some ________ to the area.

Last summer, I found a tiny little plant in the yard that I could not immediately identify. I knew I didn’t plant it and Denise said she didn’t either.

We decided to let it ________ growing until we could find out what it was.

Weeks passed and as I made my way back to the ________ plant, it appeared to be a sunflower. I decided to ________ the weeds (杂草) around it. As I pulled rocks from the area to get to the weeds, I noticed something ________.The sunflower had not ________ where I saw it begin. It actually had begun under a big rock and grown under and around it to reach the ________.

That’s when I ________ that if a tiny little sunflower didn’t let a big rock stand in its way of developing, we too have the ability of doing the same thing. If we ________ ourselves like that little sunflower, we can reach where we ________ to go and get what we need for growth.

We need to believe in ourselves knowing we have the ________ to achieve our goals. Like the sunflower, it knew it had the ability to get over the rocks because it had ________ in itself that it would succeed. Stand tall like the sunflower and be ________ of who and what we are, and then the environment will begin to ________ us. We will find a way to go under or around any “rocks” in order to reach our goals.

10 . We run into situations where we take many things for granted (理所当然的) in our daily lives. We only ________ things when they are gone. This is a sad truth of human nature.

The other day, I witnessed a similar situation. I left work and boarded the train. After entering, I noticed something ________. The center of the car had a few empty seats while both ends were crowded with people ________. I paid no much attention and sat down on one of the empty seats. I ________ a funny smell. It wasn’t long before I noticed a ________ person sleeping on three seats in front of me. He was bleeding from his nose. Why wasn’t anyone helping him?

His clothes were ________ and he was giving off a strange smell. Along with the smell, his eyes were ________, watery and red. Occasionally he scratched (抓破) himself and people looked at him as if he was a/ an ________. As the train stopped at stations and more people came in, they covered their noses and ________ him. All the seats around him were empty.

________, he began to swear at the people around him. A plain-clothes ________ took out his certificate (证件) and ________ it to the homeless man. The officer, not wanting to touch the homeless man, told him his rights and directed him to exit the ________. The homeless man turned around and said “MY HOME!” and started crying as the officer ________ the man out of the train.

A man doesn’t value things until they are gone. If he didn’t have a ________, at least he had freedom. Now he has neither. No one wants to help someone who won’t help himself.